


Daughter of Destiny

by canufeelthemagictonight



Series: ETNuary [1]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Colleen wants her future back goddammit, Destiny is nonbinary, Drabble, ETNuary, Gen, Happy Colleen Day!, One Shot, Personification, Resurrection, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-04-21 09:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: Death is cruel, but Destiny isn't.How did Colleen Ballinger remember a child and a marriage that had not yet come to pass?An Escape the Night one-shot. Day 1 of ETNuary.
Relationships: Colleen Ballinger/Erik Stocklin
Series: ETNuary [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587721
Comments: 19
Kudos: 25





	Daughter of Destiny

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1595678) by [afterandalasia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia). 

> For those of you who don't know, ETNuary is an all-month fic-writing extravaganza I organized. For each day, participants are to write a fic centered around a certain Escape the Night character.  
We're starting off strong on Day 1 with the first character on the list: Colleen Ballinger! I took a little inspiration from one of my favorite Disney fanfics for this.

Death is cruel, but Destiny isn't. Destiny sees the multiverse, the thousand universes flung across time and space, the endless possibilities dancing among the stars. They know what is to come. They know what should've been. They know all, yet in times of great trouble such as this, they feel as if they know nothing.

And so, they weep at the broken bodies of those fallen by the Cursed God's games, because he has destroyed the happy endings these innocents should've earned.

_(In another life,_ sighs the broken spirit. _In another life.)_

All Destiny can do is hold their souls—each and every single one—in the stolen moments between their death and their departure for the afterlife, caress solace into their heads, and give them one last perfect dream of the futures that were denied to them. Some see success in their chosen fields—video game tournament victories, melodious songs to rock the charts, roles in film and television, even a few more million subscribers. Others see companionship—friendships made, true love found, engagements and weddings and families. Still others see personal fulfillment—a sense of purpose, high self-esteem, and the kind of wonderful happiness they haven't felt in years. In this way, Destiny offers these unfortunate victims some measure of peace before they move on.

This comforts most of them. But, of course, there's always an exception. In this case, the exception's name is Colleen Ballinger.

She's thirty-one, dark hair, brown eyes, killed by an infernal contraption known as the Maiden of Madness. Destiny tries to console her with a vision of a child that would've been born (that, indeed, was already growing within her when she died) and a marriage that would've taken place. But instead of finding comfort in her lost family, the poor girl only finds further torment, and she weeps and screams in Destiny's arms. "He killed us all!" she wails hysterically. "He destroyed everything! I'll never, ever, _ever_ forgive him!"

And so Colleen departs for her afterlife in anguish, and Destiny fears that this time, they have failed.

The glass cases of the Museum of the Dead are meant to wipe the memory of everything that happened to the dead after their deaths. They will not recall the World Between Worlds, the Collector, or Destiny. All they will remember are the lives they used to live.

But, extraordinarily, Colleen does not forget her encounter with Destiny. She remembers everything. Her son, her husband, her fallen future, _everything._

Even Destiny does not know how this happened. But they suspect that it has something to do with Colleen's incredibly tenacity. The Disco Dancer turned Duchess is nothing if not determined, so it could be that she held the image of Erik and Flynn in her head through sheer willpower. Such love is too powerful to be deleted so easily.

On top of that, Destiny's gift has given Colleen something powerful: motivation. She has a new reason to survive.

Perhaps Destiny didn't fail her after all.

Colleen makes it all the way to Ancient Greece before a Minotaur fells her. Destiny cries when they see her again. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I'm sorry my possibilities only caused you pain."

"Show me again," orders Colleen as she wipes her eyes.

"I'm sorry?"

"Show me my son again. I want to see him. Please."

She presses her head against Destiny's palm, and Destiny does as she asks. This time, as Colleen watches the life she could've had play out before her, she laughs and smiles through her cascading tears. She is comforted. And Destiny is fulfilled.

(Both are under the impression that this is the true end. Both are wrong. Both will be glad of it.)

Fate twists in Colleen's favor. Fortune gives her back her future, and through her quick thinking, her intense will to live, and her desire to make figments of the multiverse into her universe's reality, she makes sure that she never dies in a death game again.

She survives Purgatory. She gets married. She meets her son.

And no one is prouder than the very fabric of Destiny itself.

**Author's Note:**

> Next up: Andrea Brooks!


End file.
